Global brain : the evolution of mass mind from the big bang to the 21st century / Howard Bloom

Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-352) and index.

Prologue: Biology, Evolution, and the Global Brain 1
1 Creative Nets in the Precambrian Era 14
2 Networking in Paleontology's "Dark Ages" 20
3 Embryonic Meme 29
4 From Social Synapses to Social Ganglions: Complex Adaptive Systems in Jurassic Days 39
5 Mammals and the Further Rise of Mind 49
6 Threading a New Tapestry 57
7 Trip through the Perception Factory 64
8 Reality Is a Shared Hallucination 71
9 Conformity Policy 81
10 Diversity Generators: The Huddle and the Squabble - Group Fission 91
11 End of the Ice Age and the Rise of Urban Fire 100
12 Weave of Conquest and the Genes of Trade 109
13 Greece, Miletus, and Thales: The Birth of the Boundary Breakers 121
14 Sparta and Baboonery: The Guesswork of Collective Mind 129
15 Pluralism Hypothesis: Athens' Underside 141
16 Pythagoras, Subcultures, and Psycho-Bio-Circuitry 151
17 Swiveling Eyes and Pivoting Minds: The Pull of Influence Attractors 164
18 Outstretch, Upgrade, and Irrationality: Science and the Warps of Mass Psychology 178
19 Kidnap of Mass Mind: Fundamentalism, Spartanism, and the Games Subcultures Play 191
20 Interspecies Global Mind 207
21 Conclusion: The Reality of the Mass Mind's Dreams: Terraforming the Cosmos 217
Notes 225
Bibliography 291
Acknowledgments 353
Index 355